According to a report released recently by the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization (SEMPO), advertisers in the U.S. and Canada spent $5.75 billion on Search Engine Marketing (SEM) in 2005, a 44 percent increase over 2004 spending.

To keep everyone up to date on the vast opportunities in the U.S. market, the resident population of the United States, projected to 01/10/06 at 15:24 GMT (EST+5) is 297,880,995 according to the U.S. Bureau of the Census. And, since it's not a static number, here's how to stay current: " Add one birth every 8 seconds" Subtract one death every 12 seconds "Add one international migrant every 31 seconds "Or, just round to a net gain of one person every 14 seconds

According to BIGresearch's December Consumer Intentions and Actions Survey, retailers spending on TV commercials to drive shoppers into their stores met with indifference. When asked if their favorite commercial motivated them to shop that retailer 38.1% said no, 35.4% said the commercials had no impact because they were already shopping at that retailer, and only 26.5% said yes.

Grand total combined spot and non-spot Radio revenue for the month of November 2005 remained flat when compared to November of 2004. Total combined local and national ad sales figures for November of this year also came in flat when compared to November of last year.

In a recently released Memo/Report on the use of the Internet by both men and women from PEWInternet, Deborah Fallows, Senior Research Fellow at the Pew Internet Project and author of the new report, writes that men pursue many Internet activities more intensively than women, and that men still try the latest technologies first. Fallows continues, though, noting that women are catching up in overall use and are framing their online experience with a greater emphasis on deepening connections with people.

For the final final, comScore Networks just released holiday season and annual online spending figures for full year 2005, concluding that total Internet spending for the full year, including travel, reached $143.2 billion, up 22 percent over the $117.2 billion spent online in 2004.

Based on new analysis by Nielsen//NetRatings, image based advertising is not only significant in selected industries, but is preferred across the board. Helpful definitions with which to relate the data are provided by the author:

A recent release by Hitwise, sourced from information in the Hitwise U.S. service, concludes that trends in visits to News & Media sites are driven by major events. Significant spikes were seen in the past year during the 2004 elections, the Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami, the death of Terry Schiavo, the London bombings, and Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

A recently released Pew Research Center survey finds that as the oldest of the nation's 75 million baby boomers approach the age of 60, 50% were raising one or more young children and/or providing primary financial support to one or more adult children, while another 17% whose only children are ages 18 and older were providing some financial assistance to at least one such child,